Coasting or gravity railway.



PA-TENTED NOV. 22, 1904.

G. A. DB BAUN. I OOASTING 0R GRAVITYRAILWAY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 26,1904.

N0 MODEL.

ATTORNEYS.

WITNESSES Patented November 22, 1904.

PATENT OFFIC GEORGE A. DE BAUN, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

COASTING OR GRAVITY RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 775,702, dated November22, 1904.

I Application filed September 26, 1904. Serial No. 225,869. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. DE BAUN, a. citizen of the United States,residing in Paterson, county of Passaic, and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Coasting or GravityRailways; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of referencemarked thereon which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to coasting or gravity railways; and-it consistsin certain improvements in such mechanism having for their object tomake the same strong, durable and cheap in construction, safe andreliable in'operation, and, so far as the car is concerned, light andeasy to handle when in the operation this is necessary.

The invention will be found fully illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein Figure 1 is a view in side elevation thereof. Fig. 2is a top plan View. Fig. 3 is a crosssectional view on the line as m inFig. 1; Fig. 4;, a view showing the guideway in section and the car inrear elevation, and Fig. 5 is a side View of a modified'form of theguideway.

On suitable stanchions a is supported a guideway 6, which incross-section appears as in Figs. 3 and 4. It has the shape of an I-beam in cross-section and for cheapness may be formed of strips of woodcomprising a top rail 0, a bottom rail d, and a vertical connecting railor web 0. At the top f of the railway the latter is for a short distancehorizontal. From here it inclines downwardly at any suitable angle andfor any desired distance and preferably terminates in another horizontalportion 9 at the bottom. 7

The car is made up of two parallel-spaced cheek-pieces h h, setvertically and resting upon and secured to horizontal strips z', whichform the runners and whose adjacent edges are set closer together thanthe rail 0 is wide, so that they act as a guard to prevent the car frombeing derailed, a seat j, which is supported by said cheek-pieces itthrough the mehold on to the cross-piece Z with his hands, for

which purpose said cross-pieces Z and m are extended laterally beyondthe sides of the car, as best seen in Figs. 2, 3, and 4.

In order to reinforce the rear portion of the car where the most of theweight of the occupant comes, auxiliary cheek-pieces p are placedoutside of the cheek-pieces it, supporting the cross-pieces Z on thestrips 2' the same as thecheek-pieces 7b. The auxiliary cheekpiecesterminate considerably short of the front ends of the cheek-pieces it toform footrests q at the front ends of the strips The impetus of the caras it approaches the bottom end of the railway may be overcome by abraking means such as that shown in Fig. 2. This consists of flexiblestrips which maybe of wood and which are set in the form of a V on thetop of the guideway b, with the apex toward the upper end of therailway, being secured to the sides of a wedge s, in turn secured on theguideway Z. The spaced ends of the strips 9" are sufiiciently widerapart than the cheek-pieces it of the car, so that when the car passesover this braking means the strips r will exert considerable friction onthe cheek-pieces 7L and so cause the car to slow up. They can also bemade to act as safetystops for the car should they be placed on anupgrade of the guideway, preventing the car from rolling backward downthe guideway.

In order to remove the car from the rail short of the lower end of therailway for any purpose, the top rail 0 is cut away at both sides, as att, sufficiently, so that'the strips e' will clear them if the car islifted. It will be understood that the car is placed on the guideway bypresenting it endwise to the latter, so that the strips Z, carrying thecasters, will serve for the car as runners bearing on the rail cZ of theguideway.

The modification shown in Fig. 5 is designed to impart a series of jarsas it runs down the railway, and to this end the pieces u, of which thebottom rail d is formed, are secured in overlapping disposition.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. In acoasting 01' gravity railway, the combination of an inclined guidewayhaving an I-shaped cross-section, and a car comprising two spacedrunners bearing on the top of the base part of said guideway and setcloser together than the top portion of said guideway is wide, parallelcheek-pieces resting on said runners, and a seat surmounting saidcheekpieces, substantially as described.

2. In a coasting or gravity railway, the combination of an inclinedguideway having an I-shaped cross-section, and a car comprising twospaced runners bearing on the top of the base part of said guideway andset closer together than the top portion of said guideway is wide,parallel cheek-pieces resting on said runners, a seat, and cross-piecesresting on said cheek-pieces and carrying said seat, said cross-piecesbeing extended beyond the sides of said seat to form foot and handholds, substantially as described.

3. In a coasting or gravity railway, the combination of an inclinedguideway having an I-shaped cross-section, and a car comprising twospaced runners bearing on the top of the base part of said guideway andset closer together than the top portion of said guideway is wide,parallel cheek-pieces resting on said runners, auxiliary cheek-piecesalso resting on said runners and terminating at their front ends shortof said runners and said first-named cheek-pieces, a seat, andcross-pieces resting on said cheelcpieces and carrying said seat, saidcross-pieces being extended beyond the sides of said seat to form footand hand holds, substantially as described.

4:. In a coasting or gravity railway, the combination of an inclinedguideway, a car arranged to run on said guideway, said car havingparallel spaced members, and a braking device consisting of a V-shapedelastic member secured to said guideway horizontally and with its apexend toward the upper end of said guideway, the other end of saidV-shaped member being wider than the adjacent faces of said parallelmembers are apart and being arranged in the plane in which said membersmove, substantially as described.

5. In a coasting or gravity railway, the com- Witnesses:

JOHN W. STEWARD, ROBERT J. POLLITT.

